Hatchlings released...

Olive ridley nesting season started around December along the coast of Chennai, India. The hatchlings have started to emerge and this is the first release from the Students' Sea Turtle Conservation Network (SSTCN) Hatchery. For viewing a small footage posted by a friend (Sidharth)... click the image above.


The video below is a quick primer on the turtle hatching program in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where the turtles nest even during the early morning hours and hatchlings emerge during the day... probably a nature's mechanism for regulating their sex ratio. (The sex of hatchlings is decided by the temperature in the area during incubation. If the temperature is below -29.5 degrees Celsius the offspring will be mainly male!). Personally feel this video could be used as a good educational tool.
Courtesy: Mark Lee Read, a sailor in US of A.







The video below is another interesting one on Olive Ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) nesting during the day in Ostional beach, Pacific coast of Costa Rica. This short video by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) illustrates the nesting process of this endangered species.

Turtles in Trouble

Are you going on a beach holiday abroad? Have you thought about the turtles that might nest there? Nowadays, tourism affects most corners of our world. Tourism can be used positively for marine turtle conservation, as the Turtle Conservation Project (TCP) in Sri Lanka has shown. But more often than not, insensitive tourism can present serious threats to marine turtles and their habitats, especially at the nesting beaches.
Turtles in Trouble: You can make a difference!

The good news is that there are things that we can do while on holiday to reduce tourism-related threats to marine turtles at popular holiday destinations.

Marine Conservation Society(MCS) has joined forces with The Travel Foundation and design company Juniperblue to produce this entertaining and educational cartoon called Turtles in Trouble. The humorous, 8-minute animation is for UK tourists planning holidays in the Mediterranean, but includes advice relevant to all destinations with marine turtles. Narrated by Kate Humble, the animation demonstrates how small changes to our behaviour while on holiday can make big differences to the lives of marine turtles found at tourist destinations.

Click on the image to watch Turtles in Trouble. Am sure you would enjoy it, and if you do, please tell all your friends about it!

Lumens Lost...

Some of the first lamps
Lit on the nights
Of the festival of ligh
Often goes off
Before, we could turn around
Lighting the last lamp


In our collection
We…
Sight it a little closely
A little longer…

Lumens lost
Is much greater
Than what it spread
When it was lit
Descends to spread
Slowly
Brightly…
In every heart!

The State

After entering
The God’s room...
Tried to get away

Satan at the doorsteps...
Turned back
Looked at God...

The halo of peace
Glowed
Around his face...
“I want to go,” Said I.
“Go and come,” said God.
After going...
I’m back!

Yet Again I've Forgotten Your Name

Burying within the screams of the sea
Amidst the fragrance of sweet smelling flowers
Collecting the wetness of the mist
My memories begin their gallop!

Before the buzz of the bee
Could fade from our ears
We had discussed "enough"
With the weight of the air
That brings down the leaves in autumn
We parted...

Like the light hidden in fire
Everything that glittered have faded
While pushing to the pinnacle of the pits
And nadir of the peaks



The cool breeze touched me
Reminding me of your name
On a rainy day
Failing to remember
What was expected
And forgetting to fall
Remains drenched...
A few flowers...
Yet again I've forgotten your name!

Success

While crossing the road.
I sighted
An anonymous Flower

Wished to turn into Carl Linnaeus
And name it
In all the worldly languages
To call it out

I stood. . .
Stunned by its ability
To stand in its own place
And bloom with success

Shouts from the other side
Jumped to side . . .
To escape
As a speeding car went past. . .

Searched along the roads
Couldn’t sight
The Successful flower!

Yearnings. . .

My yearnings...
Image In this starry desert
Are similar
To the longings Of the solitary sun

What are the gains.?
Of crude expressions
Senseless longings...
Standing strong
To touch the nadir of life.
In the undisclosed privacy!
Dishonour...
Uncovered forthrightness
The pride of being a solitary sun

The longing for life.
Never gets contented In this barren sky
Between the clouds
Which dissipate in their approach!

Withering Flowers

Meaningful poetic lines...
That aren't mine Summer Rain...
In the distant land . . .
A Bloomed and withered flower...
Behind the leaves

Before I could reach the terrace...
The set evening sun . . .
In the fear of getting disturbed...
The incomplete bird's nest

Sighted only in the photographs...
The Kurinji flowers . . .
There are many that are lost By us, and . . .
On their own!

In my room . . .
The arrested open space
The bright light
That peeps through the window . . .
Bursts in sadness for its arrest
As scattered silence!


The practiced words of the day . . .
Remain meaningless in the darkness
Your memories remain scattered
Filling the space . . .
Joining my inability to stop (you)!

Sea Turtles and light

Each summer, Chennai beaches host the gathering of nesting Olive Ridley sea turtles in the Tamil Nadu. Female sea turtles emerge from the surf to deposit eggs in sand nests and later, tiny hatchlings struggle from their nests and scramble to the ocean. Nearly all of this activity takes place under cover of darkness and relies upon natural light environment too often disrupted by the addition of artificial lighting.

Hatching

Nearly 60 days after eggs were placed in the nest, hatchling sea turtles tear themselves free of their papery eggshells beneath the sand and with periodic bouts of thrashing, make their way to the surface. At nightfall, as many as 100 hatchlings burst together from the sand and immediately scramble toward the ocean. Moving quickly from the nest to sea is critical for the survival of hatchling sea turtles.

Misdirected Hatchlings

On beaches where artificial lighting is visible, the hatchlings' important journey to the sea is disrupted. Hatchling sea turtles emerging from nests at night are strongly attracted to light sources along the beach. Consequently, hatchlings move away from their relative sanctuary of the ocean, toward hoardings and streetlights. Hatchlings so misled fail to find their way to the sea, often succumb to attacks by predators, exhaustion and drying up in the morning sun, sometimes even strikes by automobiles on nearby parking lots and roads. A single light left on near a sea turtle nesting beach can misdirect and kill hundreds of hatchlings. The video that’s a part of this posting shows how the baby turtles tend to move towards a simple torchlight.

Artificial Lighting Affects Nesting

Artificial lighting also affects the nesting of female sea turtles. Studies have shown that brightly lighted beaches are less frequently used as nesting sites. In addition, females attempting to return to the sea after nesting, like hatchlings, also can be lead astray by nearby lighting.

Learning Car driving... Drives Me Crazy...

Learning car driving seems to be an interesting way to get spanked from someone after paying him/ her your hard-earned money! I took up this great decision, when my wife, like for many other, offered support to repay the loan a few months back.

I promptly joined a "Specialised—Advanced" driving school in the town. Worse as it may sound, I decided to take up the early morning slot of 6:00 AM... Half asleep and half awake, I reached the driving school, to be greeted by a lifeless (only till I took to the wheel) driving instructor and a badly beaten car.

Another brave young man joined me for the class. The instructor started with a deluge of instructions on all the basics of car driving for 5 loooooooooooong minutes... then to my own surprise, in my excitement I accepted his challenge (???) and opted to be the first to take the lesson... As I took to the steering-wheel, was surprised and confused at those extra set of brake and clutch at his end...

Now as I started, the instructions began... Change to neutral... hold the brake.... change to first gear.... hold the brake.... release the clutch.... hmmm slowly... slowly... brake... not accelerator... whew.... yeah that's like it.... now third... horn.... brake... now fourth ... slow down... show hand signal... clutch... hold it before you change gears... how many times do I tell you... I slowly started getting used to the atmosphere....

Never did I imagine, that moments later I would be driving on right angles to other vehicles.... my confusion of those extra set of brake/clutch on his end made sense now! The inundation of instructions poured out continually... only that they were at an increasingly irate tone ...

Few days later a day when I felt had driven not too well, and my instructor surprised me by saying I was ready for the practical test. The driving school scheduled the test a few weeks later, I was asked to report at 09:30 am. Stood in a long queue to pay the test fees and got my papers stamped by 11:30 am. I was then asked to go over to the Municipal Ground where the test would commence.

Testing commenced at 02:30 pm. My driving instructor, who constantly showered his "blessings" when I took to wheel, suddenly became helpful and helped me stay at ease before the examiner appeared. Seven of us from the same school appeared for the test. I felt I had messed up (as usual?) while changing gears. But to my surprise, after three gear changes he asked me to pull the vehicle to the side. I did that using the light indicator. When he asked why I did not show the hand signal before stopping, I acted as if am a seasoned driver of an air-conditioned car!

Whew... was I relieved when he asked me to switch off the car and go back to join the co-learners who by now, were more than relieved to have me in the rear than at the wheel...

All of us were equally bad! Three of the seven who appeared didn't make it. [They always maintain that ratio am told!]. Was extremely delighted when I heard that I’d passed on the very first attempt.

Classes gone and with a licence to flash, I now have more experience in car driving than the Hindi film Actor Salman Khan for his decent dressing!!!

My Son... My Teacher...

It takes a small child to make us see sense sometimes. My 7-year old Son loves school and on the days that I collect him, I always greet him with, "Hi Suraj, how are you?"

And nine times out of ten he answers, "Hi Papa, I'm brilliant!"

It is next to impossible from smiling at such an open exhibition of enthusiasm. His positivity is infectious!

Yet, like most adults, it took a while to dawn on me that I could learn something from a little child.

I was thinking about him when I met an office colleague this morning.

"Hello, Ramjee," she said as we automatically shook hands, "how are you?"

It was on the tip of my tongue to say "I'm fine", or, "not too bad" as I would normally respond. But instead, Suraj's smiling face popped into my mind and I came back with, "I'm brilliant, thank you. How are you?"

A flicker of confusion crossed her face as my unexpected response sank in. Then a big smile spread across this rather dour colleague's face and she said, "You know, I'm feeling pretty brilliant too!"

We had a great day working.

My son Suraj's natural enthusiasm taught me a big lesson: that we go through life saying and hearing conditioned responses that really mean absolutely nothing. It is only when we break out of the expected that real communication occurs.

What do 'fine', 'okay', 'not too bad', 'all right', 'pretty good' and all the other non-responses really mean? Absolutely nothing. They mean nothing because the question that they answer usually means less than nothing.

'How are you', 'how're you doing', 'how's the family' are meaningless punctuation. Most often the person asking is not even looking at you - and rarely are they listening to your equally meaningless answer.

Yet, by hijacking that automatic question and giving a completely unexpected - and exciting answer - we can take control of a conversation. And more, force the other person to think positively of us.

I could have said 'marvellous' or 'first-class' or 'absolutely splendid' or any number of positive, energizing statements. But I liked Suraj's choice.

It is certainly true that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Let your first impression in any meeting, be brilliant!

The edited version of this article has appeared in Hindu Metroplus. You could look that up by clicking on the following link!

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2006/02/11/stories/2006021103080100.htm

Blue Blessings From The Sky

As the sun starts to warm the region lucky residents of the city get to witness a Jacaranda tree in blossom! The trees are easily recognised by their breathtaking floral display of vivid lilac-blue clusters of trumpet shaped flowers. These trees thrive well in sunny areas and thus serve as an ideal ornamental tree in large to smaller sized gardens. They grow roughly 10m high and are five to eight m wide. Jacaranda is often chosen to serve as a perfect summer centrepiece for gardens, as its erupts in a blaze of brilliant colour when all of the spring blossom trees have long been gone. Its floral displays are said to be even better after a dry year!

Amazing surprise

Due to the bright lilac-blue floral shows that appear in unison, Jacarandas' blooms have locally been associated with the Garden City of Bangalore. However, Brazil and other parts of tropical and sub-tropical South America are its place of origin. An Argentinean student of mine told me that they call this tree Hakharanda.

If you have a Jacaranda tree in your neighbourhood, you could be in for a surprise any day now. A couple of days ago, in my neighbourhood a tree that appeared dry and withered all through winter bloomed and glowed in its magnificence overnight. When I drove around the city last weekend I was interested to learn that the tree, as in Bangalore, appears to have bloomed in unison! It is also delightful when the flowers fall to the earth carpeting the ground in a mass of colour.

There's a popular belief that if one of the trumpet blossoms from the Jacaranda fall on your head you will be favoured by fortune. A horticulturist informs me that the tree generally puts on its floral shows twice every year. The first blooms appear when its branches are bare and the second flush is in summer when the lush green leaves emerge. So, look up and don't miss the opportunity to receive nature's blessings for a fortune through the Jacaranda blossom!

Did you know? The administrative capital of South Africa Pretoria, noted for its 70,000 plus flowering Jacaranda trees is often referred to as The Jacaranda City.

Fact file:

Blue Jacaranda: Jacaranda mimosifolia

Family: Bignoniaceae

Origin: Brazil, Bolivia, North western Argentina.
Growth habits: Deciduous tree; twice-pinnately compound leaves, up to 45 cm long.
Propagation: Easily by cuttings, or seeds
Blooming habits: Tubular, lavender blue, flowers, five cm long, in 20-30 cm long clusters.
Fruiting habits: Flattened two inch capsules, containing winged seeds.

This Article of mine appeared on April 28, 2006 in "The Young World" a magazine of The Hindu Newspaper

You could read that following the link below: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-youngworld/blue-blessings-from-the-sky/article3227474.ece

An interesting Cartoon...

Emergence of Olive Ridley Turtle

The Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) sea turtle, named for the olive tone of its carapace. It travels in the open ocean waters of tropical Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Olive Ridleys are more abundant seaturtles, but are still on the endangered species list because only a few nesting sites remain worldwide where they can congregate for the Arribada.

Much has yet to be discovered about sea turtles, because most of a sea turtle’s life is spent submerged at sea, studying sea turtles in the wild is challenging. During nesting season, when females come ashore, we can get a rare glimpse of these animals.

Olive Ridley turtles reach sexual maturity when they are 10 --15 years of age. When it is time to mate, male and female turtles will congregate offshore of the beach where they were hatched. When a female is ready to lay her eggs, she will crawl ashore. A mother turtle is choosy about the location of her nest. She will carefully select a location above the high tide line. If she is not satisfied with the quality of the beach or if noises, strange objects or bright lights frighten her, she will return to the sea. This is called a “false crawl.”

Once comfortable with the spot for her nest, the mother turtle uses her flippers to dig a body pit in the sand. With her body in position, she cups her rear flipper and uses them to scoop out an egg cavity in which to deposit her eggs. The eggs, which resemble rubbery ping-pong balls, are laid at a rate of two to three at a time. Females will lay anywhere from 80-120 eggs per nest, depending on their species.

A great deal of care is put into camouflaging the nest once the eggs are laid. The mother will pack sand over the egg cavity and will then use her front flippers to disguise the body pit. She throws sand in all directions, making the nest virtually impossible to recognize. When the mother turtle is content that the nest is concealed, she will head back to sea. She will repeat this procedure three to five times in a single nesting season, but will, in most cases, not return to nest again for two to three years.

The eggs will incubate within the nest for approximately 60 days. The average temperature of the nest during the course of incubation will determine whether or not the young hatchlings will be male or female. Females result from warmer temperatures; males develop when temperatures are cooler. Many factors such as the quality of the sand, weather and beach development can influence the incubation temperature of the eggs.

Emergence/ Boil

When the hatchlings have fully developed, they will hatch and crawl their way up and out of the nest en masse. This event is called a “boil,” as it resembles a pot boiling over with sea turtles. Emerging hatchlings obtain bearings to the ocean by locating the horizon over the water, which is brighter than the landward horizon, and they scurry in that direction to their new home. Once these hatchlings reach the sea, their activities are a mystery to scientists. It is believed that they find floating masses predators. Before the hatchlings leave the beach, they imprint the location so they can return again as adults.

The first hatchlings of the season emerge from nests approximately eight weeks after the first nesting of the season, and this activity continues for up to eight weeks after the final nesting of the season. In Chennai, hatchlings generally emerge throughout the spring and early winter. It is a myth that hatchlings emerge only around the time of the full moon. Hatchlings ready to emerge wait just beneath the sand surface until conditions become cool. This temperature cue prompts them to emerge primarily at night, although some late-afternoon and early-morning emergences have been recorded.

The apparent brightness and glare of artificial lighting often leads hatchlings astray. To a hatchling on a beach, an artificial light source appears bright because it is relatively close by, yet it is not intense enough to brighten the sky and landscape. The resulting glare makes the direction of the artificial source appear overwhelmingly bright—so much brighter than the other directions that hatchlings will ignore other visual cues and move toward the artificial light no matter where it is relative to the sea.

Sea turtle hatchlings have an innate tendency to move in the brightest direction. Under natural circumstances, the brightest direction is most often the open view of the night sky over, and reflected by, the ocean. This sea-finding behaviour can take place during any phase and position of the moon, which indicates that hatchlings do not depend on lunar light to lead them seaward. Hatchlings also tend to move away from darkly silhouetted objects associated with the dune profile and vegetation.

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